


tangerine and green

by orphan_account



Series: UFUT [7]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Palefic, ufutverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny oneshot in the UFUTverse, set vaguely after Wanted Extremely Pricy Troll(s) chapter 4. Bro takes everything on himself, and just being human doesn't exempt him from the need for a moirail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tangerine and green

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rainbowBarnacle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowBarnacle/gifts).



None of them had really realized how goddamn much Dirk had taken on over the past few months. He was...very, very good at making shit look effortless: managing a household with bizarre expenses, raising--or co-raising--two extremely precocious kids while holding down a full-time job (yes it still counted if he worked from home), co-modding the SPCT forums and managing the media content upload to their main webpage. Dealing with the IRS lawyer guys to get the Serket Foundation's 501(c)3 status approved--and dealing with the money manager dude to handle the donated funds. And going grocery shopping and taking the kids out to the park and answering the goddamn askblog and worrying, all the time _worrying_ , all the fucking time _worrying_. 

Before, when it had just been him and Dave, the sources of worry had been considerably fewer. Now--he wouldn't want any of their triumphs to be walked back just because he found it fuckin' stressful to do some basic administrative bullshit. He strifed with Dave when he could, but it felt like a chore as well. 

Then Dave got sick, and abruptly Dirk's mental magnetic field shifted sharply, and everything else got shunted aside so that he could fix his little brother--knowing all the time, knowing perfectly well that he couldn't fix this, he could only wait for it to go away, and do what he could to help Dave through it. He found viruses particularly frustrating--with bacteria you could generally cockslap them with antibiotics, but there was not much anybody could do with a virus other than curse it to the deepest pits of Erebus and hope it went away on its own. 

He hadn't slept more than four hours at a time in...uh. Over a week? He was living on coffee and Pringles and aspirin. All the time it felt as if a small but very heavy weight was pressing on his chest, just at the end of his sternum, squeezing down, refusing to let up. 

None of that mattered, of course, that was just somatic bullshit he'd deal with when time should serve. Right now he had Jade finishing up the CSS on a new and improved online-donation page. It was...two in the morning 

_and the party's still jumpin cause my momma ain't home_

and he had a headache that echoed in his ears with each thump of his heart and Ampora had said something to him earlier about shitty remarks or looks aimed at himself and Dave and

and Dave was flat on his back in bed with a fuckin' temperature for the second time in two weeks and shit he had to call that woman, Helsing, was that even her real fucking name, that was such bullshit, but no she wouldn't be there because it was two in the morning but he had to call her when it wasn't two in the morning and be like no I don't actually give a fuck about convenience, get your ass over here and fix my little brother and

and everything was moving too fast, the way it did when you lost concentration while driving, and he got up from the table, leaving his own computer and Jade working at hers, and went to the doorway to the living room, meaning to go...turn on the TV, or put on music, or something, anything to make his god damn head stop turning in on itself

_topological equivalent of a human being turned in on itself until it reaches what appears to be toroidal form? show your work_

and the lead weight on his sternum suddenly tripled, and he just caught the doorway with one shoulder and leaned against it, shaking all over.

Somebody was there, somebody was touching him, and Dirk didn't like touching unless he'd instigated it but narrow strong arms slipped round his waist and someone pressed their face against the back of his neck and held him steady while he shivered and shook. His eyes were dry: it would take a great deal more than a garden-variety stress-related freakout for Dirk Strider to cry, but his breathing was ragged and unsteady as he reached to cover Jade's hands with his own. It felt ridiculously good to have her there, the kind of good that didn't mind if you looked terrible or hadn't slept in a week or needed a shower. 

"Dirk," she was saying. 

He twisted around in her arms until he could bonk his face on her shoulder and lean on her, the shakes subsiding. Her hair smelled like green apples and rain, sharp-sweet, comforting. She was rubbing his back in firm little circles, half-supporting his weight, and he could feel the tension fading underneath that touch.

"Sorry," he said, when he could make his voice work. "Dunno what the fuck that was all about."

He wasn't prepared to be shaken sharply by the shoulders, and his head wobbled and he blinked down at her. "Yes you do," Jade snapped. "You damn well do, cause you've been working yourself to shreds in God knows how many roles since this whole thing started, and I will honest to fuck scream until glasses break if you tell me one more time that you're just peachy-keen."

She stared up at him, brilliant-green eyes narrowed to predatory slits. 

"Uh," Dirk managed. "Jade."

"You don't have to do it all alone," she said, and the anger in her voice had snapped and let forth something stronger, something warmer. "You don't. I'm here."

"You're here," he parroted.

"I'm here and I'm gonna _be_ here and you just better take care of yourself, mister, or I'm gonna zap you with my stun gun and haul your tiresome ass to bed."

"...well, when you put it in those enticing terms," Dirk said into her shoulder. 

"Right. C'mon, you gotta get some sleep before your brains crawl out your ears." She was all brisk efficiency, but the way she helped him down the hall to the bathroom, steadying his steps, wasn't brisk at all. 

Some time later, curled up in the bed he'd been neglecting recently, Dirk looked up at her. In the dimness Jade was just a shadow, but a warm one, a shadow who smelled good. "Want me to stay?" she asked, as if this wasn't a ridiculous thing to want.

He couldn't trust his voice, just nodded, and she settled on the edge of the bed, stroking the blanket-covered curve of his back. "Mmh."

"Yeah, whatever, Mister Talkative," Jade said, and her voice was so warm it made him feel even sleepier--and he slipped down into vague dreams on the echo of her voice, and was dimly aware that he had never felt so damn comforted in all his natural-born life.


End file.
